United States.
On the night he escaped from captivity, the Torchbearer flew far away until he was near a farm in New Jersey.
He extinguished his flames, transformed into human form, and hid on the second floor of the barn to rest.
He was clueless and still didn't know how to get food. In the past, it was the Professor who fed him through special tubes, but now he had to rely on himself.
Having no other choice at the moment, he had to endure hunger and sleep in the haystack.
However, not long after, some people also drove to the barn, and the sounds of shouting and beating from below startled him awake.
Turned out, it was some mysterious figures dressed in all black. They had caught an accountant and suspected him of providing the gang's account books to the tax bureau.
God, the tax bureau is truly the most terrifying elite force in the United States, now everyone's doomed!
They planned to deal with this person on this abandoned farm, using the most brutal methods to vent their fear of the future.
The Torchbearer hiding behind the haystack on the second floor knew what those people had in their hands; they were guns. He had seen similar things at the fair, and the effect of this thing was shown on the big screen—it could shoot small pellets that took away others' lives.
He'd already seen enough dead people tonight and didn't intend to kill anyone, but inside, he felt that this was wrong.
So, he jumped down from the second floor of the barn, and flames instantly engulfed his entire body. He was indeed a Superpower User, even though he didn't know what his powers represented yet.
However, in the comics, the Torchbearer and Namor were among the earliest Superpower Users introduced by Marvel, capable of facing Hai Bo Long head-on. Hai Bo Long's abilities were quite straightforward—he was essentially Marvel's Superman...
How could a group of ordinary humans fight against the superpowered Torchbearer? So they quickly fled under his drive and intimidation.
In their haste, their car crashed into a big tree, and none survived.
The Torchbearer was left bewildered; life was indeed fragile, and he hadn't intended to kill anyone.
But the accountant was saved; he held back his fear and boldly approached the Torchbearer to speak with him.
"I know who you are; you're that Fireman from New York."
"I... am... a man..."
"Hey, who cares, they say you're a monster, but you're my hero. Come on, let me treat you."
To repay him, or perhaps to save himself from the bad guys, the accountant took the Torchbearer back to his home, gave him food, and taught him the basics of living.
Here, the Torchbearer learned to read, saw newspapers, and read about the tales of heroes emerging.
Humans praised these heroes for doing the right things.
He knew he had made mistakes and must atone for them; he, too, wanted to be a hero and do good deeds.
He had the fireproof suit made by the Professor, and the accountant made him a fireproof mask from asbestos. He picked some words from the newspaper to form his name.
He had a name now, Jim Hammond.
The accountant was an upright person; otherwise, he wouldn't have opposed the bad guys, attracting death threats. He taught Jim many things and also told him that every Superhero needs a regular identity to conceal their secrets; being too powerful would only cause fear among others.
"What kind of identity can help others openly?" Jim was a bit confused.
"That's simple, become a policeman." The accountant offered him a path.
So, with the accountant's help, the Torchbearer obtained a legal identity and used his smart mind and strong body to pass the New York City police exam, becoming a street patrol officer.
He liked this job, wearing the dark blue police uniform to help others on the streets every day. He learned to disguise himself as an ordinary person, much like playing a game.
At night, he would switch to his red costume, doing good deeds in another identity, making amends for his past mistakes.
This era was interesting; many ordinary people disguised themselves as Superpower Users, while the real Superpower Users disguised themselves as ordinary people.
He always felt a sense of guilt that made him unwilling to rest or relax. Within a week, he had solved over two hundred cases of various types, becoming a star at the police station. His colleagues jokingly called him a super cop, but humans need rest.
In their eyes, this somewhat taciturn young man's flame of justice seemed never to extinguish, driven by a peculiar sense of mission that kept him going.
It was a good thing; the police indeed needed some credibility now, as they were getting criticized heavily by the media.
However, the Director still gave Jim a few days off because, as everyone said, normal people need rest.
Jim learned a lot during these days, and with his synthetic brain, he almost had perfect recall, albeit sometimes lacking common sense.
He now knew that normal people couldn't work all the time and needed entertainment and rest, so he accepted the vacation and went to Coney Island's amusement park for several days.
Of course, it was still a bit strange.
A normal person wouldn't spend days and nights at an amusement park; a grown man playing on a carousel all day seemed quite odd.
Little girls holding ice cream looked at him enviously as he sat grinning on the carousel, while their mothers hurriedly covered their eyes and pulled them away, as if they were seeing something dirty.
But to Jim, who was like a blank slate, he didn't find anything amiss; he just felt relaxed and amused.
.......
Su Ming always had his subordinates keep an eye on the police news. When the Torchbearer made his debut, he noticed, but as he previously thought, the story had changed.
Namor was supposed to go on a rampage at the amusement park, then the Torchbearer would fight him fiercely, and they would turn New York into a chaotic water and fire zone, causing massive destruction.
But the subordinates sent to spy only reported irrelevant matters daily.
"Boss, Jim ate three hundred ice creams today."
"Boss, that guy won this year's eating contest."
"Boss, he spent over 10 hours in the haunted house today."
Namor didn't appear...
This was not good news for Su Ming.
Namor flooding New York was just the beginning, or one could say, the way the United States got to know each other through fights, but Namor was missing, and his nemesis U Demon, who stood with Germany, was unchecked.
No one knew the real name of U Demon, and after all, Atlanteans' names translated to some weird sounds. He was Namor's opponent in claiming the throne.
He had been a General of Atlantis, looking like a blue monster fish with limbs. His powers were even stronger than Namor's, and at the time, Namor had only defeated him using the loyalists left by his Mother, which made him escape Bermuda.
On his escape, he encountered an underwater vessel with a large white symbol "U" on the bow.
He knew those were humans, the strongest creatures on land, so he decided to cooperate, following the peculiar vessel to their port.
Initially, this caused some commotion, but soon a short Xiaohuzi received them.
Xiaohuzi told them they were glorious Aryan People, and Atlanteans were equally high races, capable of helping each other.
The General would help them seize control of the land, and humans would help them claim all the seas; noble bloodlines should have all the rights.
Xiaohuzi's thoughts coincided with the General's. Although Xiaohuzi was short, he lacked neither passion nor courage, and his speeches were always philosophical and inspiring, which U Demon greatly admired.
Especially when the Supreme Leader spoke in that tone, saying others were mere scum.
Of course, the General agreed, it had always been his goal to reclaim the Throne of Atlantis.
He took the submarine's hull number as his codename, calling himself U Demon, and all his subordinates who fled Atlantis joined the Nazi forces, helping them establish underwater dominance.
This almost completely halted British sea transportation recently—during the United States' neutrality, some assistance could be provided, Xiaohuzi would not openly attack American merchant ships then.
But since the United States joined the war, the maritime routes were no longer secure. Even Su Ming couldn't reliably maintain Wilson Enterprises' supply to the United Kingdom.
Once the shipping fleet was spotted, German submarine wolf pack tactics combined with U Demon's elite troops would attack, with sea vessels caught between huge waves and underwater creatures, leaving almost no chance to fight back.
If this continued, Britain couldn't hold out long, and if Britain fell, the next would be America.
Su Ming didn't want to wake up one day to find the streets filled with Ten Thousand Character Banners and himself having to salute others constantly.
And that would be the best possible outcome.
Both U Demon and Xiaohuzi were dictators, able to cooperate for now, but what happens after they defeat their enemies? U Demon's favorite pastime was melting the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic, and no one knew Xiaohuzi's hidden trump cards.
If Xiaohuzi had no tricks up his sleeve, would Hydra willingly remain subordinate? Unlikely.
This world was too different from comic books and movies; past experiences were invalidated, requiring firsthand verification.